Finance minister D Jayakumar, one of the senior leaders of the AIADMK (Amma), has said that talks for patch-up have once again been initiated with the rebel faction AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma), led by former CM O Panneerselvam.

Meanwhile, an AIADMK Amma MLA on Tuesday credited jailed party chief V K Sasikala with the continuance of the party-led government in Tamil Nadu and likened Palaniswami to ‘Bharath’, a character in the Hindu epic Ramayana. Thangatamilselvan, a vocal supporter of the AIADMK Amma faction.

On the other hand, the Election Commission will soon decide on holding the by-election to the RK Nagar assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu which was cancelled on complaints of bribing of voters in April, CEC Nasim Zaidi said on Tuesday.

In the meantime, the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Tuesday witnessed noisy scenes involving arch rivals AIADMK and DMK after an opposition member was evicted during a debate over the issue of arrests of state fishermen by Sri Lankan Navy.

The 12 April by-election, which was seen as a virtual battle for Jayalalithaa’s legacy among the AIADMK factions, was cancelled after a large number of complaints were received about the alleged bribing of voters by TTV Dinakaran, deputy general secretary of one of the AIADMK factions.